DON'T MAKE AN EXCUSE FOR EXCUSES
Gen 2 15-17, “15Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Gen 3:11-13 “ 11And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
INTRODUCTION...
Excuses
Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, was an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves and cornerback for the Atlanta Falcons, is the only athlete to have hit a Major League home run and scored an NFL touchdown in the same week. Sanders grew up on the mean streets of Fort Myers, Fla., where exposure to some would-be athletes spurred him to make a success of himself. He explains: "I call them Idas. 'If I'da done this, I'd be making three million today...If I'da practiced a little harder, I'd be a superstar.' They were as fast as me when they were kids, but instead of working for their dreams they chose drugs and a life of street corners. When I was young, I had practice; my friends who didn't went straight to the streets and never left. That moment after school is the moment we need to grab. We don't need any more Idas.
There are even websites on the internet that will help you generate an excuse! It is true... you type in the type of excuse you need and it generates one for you (www.zompist.com/excuse.html).Also, you can by a doctor’s excuse from a licensed physician for $14.99 to give to your employer (http://www.doctorsexcuse.com/) or PE or class or anyone else. I find that totally amazing!
What exactly is an excuse? In a court of law, "an excuse is a defense in which a defendant argues that he or she was not liable for his or her actions at the time a law was broken and thus he or she should not be held liable for a crime. a pretext or subterfuge--- an explanation offered as a reason for being excused
I THINK AN EXCUSE IS A REASON WE GIVE WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS THAT DOES NOT GO OUR WAY. IT IS THE 'WAY' WE DID OR DID'T DO SOMETHING.IT IS OUR REASON FOR NOT DOING SOMETHING WE KNOW WE SHOULD DO.
I. The Bible is full of people making excuses and making excuses is as old as human beings.
A. In Genesis chapter 3. Adam ate the forbidden fruit, then when confronted about it, he came up with an excuse: "The woman you put here with me-- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (verse 12). Then the blame was shifted to Eve. What did Eve have to say? Genesis 3:13 records her excuse: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
B. It was the serpent’s turn and he didn’t have a leg to stand on.
EXCUSES WHY PEOPLE DON'T ATTEND CHURCH REGULARLY
A. Now that the nice summer weather is here I think we will stay home today and enjoy the
beautiful day.
B. Oh I don’t to get dresses up to go to church, I need a break from dress clothes, I think I will
stay home.
C. The building gets so hot this time of the year.
D. The building is kept so cold.
E. Every time I go to church they are asking for money.
F. The people I sat next to didn’t talk to me and they didn’t seem very friendly.
G. The pews are too hard; they hurt my back and are so uncomfortable.
H. The service times just don’t fit into my schedule.
I. That place is filled with a bunch of hypocrites.
J. That pastor is so long winded that by the time he is done the restaurants have a long wait just
to get a table.
PEOPLE HAVE SO MANY REASON FOR NOT ATTENDING CHURCH.
II..THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN CALF
A. In Exodus 32 The people of God finally arrived from Egypt and settled at the mountain of God
to receive the Ten commandments.
1. Moses was gone a long time and the people became restless. The people wanted Aaron,
Moses’ brother, to make idols that they could worship.
2. hey gave him gold. He made a calf. They were persistent in their request. Moses returned with the Ten Commandments in hand and asked Aaron if he had made the idol.
3.What was Aaron’s response? Aaron is trying to explain himself and says, "So I told
them, ’Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it
into the fire, and out came this calf!" (Exodus 32:24).
so grave. We have excuse after excuse.
A radio news series about honesty in America talked about excuses. The commentator said that people use three types of excuses when guilty of wrongdoing.
The first is outright denial a rejection of any involvement. Sometimes this is done even though the person is obviously guilty.
The second is the "It's not my fault" excuse. The person looks around for someone he can blame. (Often it is a loved one - a husband or wife or parent. Sometimes it's the boss.)
A third form of excuse is the "I did it, but...." approach. In this instance the person blames circumstances for his shortcoming. Either he's been struggling with some illness or the assignment wasn't clear or the car's been giving him trouble.
We are going to look at a parable this morning where the invited guests made excuses. Let’s
read this story from Jesus.
READ LUKE 14:15-24
I. THE PARABLE
A. This parable describes for us a great banquet to which the master of the house had extended
invitations far and wide.
1. No time had been noted in the invitation, but the understanding of the day was, once all was
ready, notification would go out to all who accepted.
2. The moment arrived. The servants were dispatched to gather the guests.
3. The expectation would be that those invited would drop what they were doing and come.
4. To accept the invitation beforehand and then make excuse when the day came was a grave
insult.
5. And yet the excuses come. Everyone knew that the banquet was being prepared and they
were supposed to have cleared their schedules.
6. All who were invited gave excuses. Other things and people took priority over the banquet
Excuse # 1:
1. Man was too involved in his business he had bought a piece of ground and needed to look
after it.
a. You can become too involved in any business. A person’s business, profession, and affairs
can consume everything soon and the business is all that matters.
Excuse # 2:
2nd man said that he was too wrapped up in new purchases.
a. The oxen had just been purchased. They were a new possession and the owner wanted to
try them out.
b. So it is purchases such as houses, cars, bikes, records and CDs, books, radios,
televisions, and a host of other material things.
c. The Bible tells us over and over that material things can take root in our lives and the love of
things can become most important in our lives.
Excuse #3:
3rd man was too wrapped up with his family.
a. This man had just got married--Marriage is ordained by God and that getting married is
certainly a good thing.
b. I think preparations to attend could have been made.
c. Maybe this man could have brought his new wife along, but just says, "I can’t come."
Family can also become an all consuming issue in our life.
II. THE INTERPRETATION
This is a story about a prepared banquet and all the guests excuse themselves from coming.
The key to interpreting this parable comes in Luke 14:15 right before Jesus gives the parable. Jesus is eating in a Pharisee’s house (Luke 14:1-14) and is discussing spiritual matters with those attending. One of the people at the table says, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."
1. The one preparing the banquet is the Lord.
2. The banquet is The Kingdom of God
3. The Invited guests are Us---supposed believers
III. THE APPLICATION
1. How does this parable apply to us?
2. What is the meaning of Jesus’ story about this banquet and the excuses?
3. How are we to understand this parable in our lives?
A. The application for this parable comes in looking at the different excuses given.
You see, God wants us to make Him a priority.
The parable is about this prepared banquet and these people were invited to attend and were
supposed to make a priority.
1. God wants to be a priority in our lives.
2. He wants His Word to be the primary influence in our lives.
3. He wants attendance to His house to be a priority in our lives.
4. He wants His DAY to be dedicated to Him.
5. He wants our worship to be directed at only Him.
6. He wants our money to honor Him first.
God wants to have a relationship with us and He wants that relationship to be the most important.
But, we make excuses.
A. Maybe your business has taken over your life and you Have no time for God. What is your
excuse?
B. Maybe you don’t want to go the House of God because you are cold in your spiritual life and
we suddenly get “sick.” I am amazed how sick some people are on Sundays nights but
receive a miracle before Monday and are at work. We feel like going to church is for the
preacher and not for our love of our Lord.
C. Maybe the ‘things’ of life and the pursuit of them is more important than God. What is your
excuse?
D. Maybe you haven’t cracked open your Bible in quite awhile. What is your excuse?
E. Maybe you are holding onto a grudge and just won’t Forgive someone. What is your excuse?
F. Maybe you are living like a Christian on Sundays, but Not Monday through Saturday. What is
your excuse?
G. Maybe your prayer life is dead and you get around someone praying and you want to run.
What is your excuse for not praying?
H. Maybe you have decided not to tithe. What is your excuse?
A. The Christian life is about giving God the priority and living under His Lordship.
B. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you accept Him as Savior and Lord.
C. Most of us have no problem with accepting Jesus as Savior.
D. We know that we cannot earn our way into Heaven and we need our sins washed away. We
know need Jesus.
C Yet, we cannot forget that He is Lord as well. HIS WILL SHOULD BE OUR PRIORITY AND IT
IS HIS WILL THAT SHOULD BE SOUGHT AFTER.
LORD MASTER-RULER A person who has authority, control, or power over others.
I am talking to our leaders now---You are a poor leader indeed if you refuse to be faithful in your servitude of our Lord!!
I have no idea what your excuse is for God or what the issue is. We all do it. We all give God excuses of why we can’t be faithful. I want to encourage you this day to rid yourself of your excuse and commit yourself to being faithful to God.
Do you remember ever being invited to a picnic, a social gathering, or a family reunion? Maybe you were told something like, "You bring what you want to eat and we’ll furnish the tea." On that day you got home late from work.
All you had to pack for your lunch was one dried up old piece of bologna and just enough mustard in the jar so that it got all over your knuckles when you tried to scoop it out of the jar—and two stale heels of bread. S-o-o-o-o-o-o you made a bologna sandwich, wrapped it in wax paper, put it in a brown paper bag and went to the picnic.
When it came time to eat, there you sat at the end of the table opened the brown paper bag and took out your pitiful sandwich. Now the folks sitting right next to you had a real spread. The woman was a great cook and had worked all day preparing the meal. There was fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, green beans, home make rolls, sliced tomatoes, pickles, olives and celery. To top it off were two great big homemade chocolate pies [your favorite].
They arranged the whole meal right beside you, and there you were…with your bologna sandwich.
But they smiled warmly and said to you, "Why don’t we put it all together?" You stammered a bit, embarrassed, and made excuses, but they insisted. "You know, there’s plenty of chicken, plenty of pie, plenty of everything. And we just love bologna sandwiches.
Let’s put it all together."
So you did…and you ended up eating like a king, even though you arrived like a pauper.
I want you began thinking about your relations with God.
And when we think of how little we have to bring and how much he offers and that he invites us to share with him, we should be shouting from the rooftops.
We do not have enough love, or faith, or grace, or mercy or wisdom.
But God does.
He has all those things in abundance, and he says, "Let’s just put it all together. Everything that I possess is available to you, and everything that I am and can be to a person I will be to you."
You see, it’s not that God needs your bologna sandwich, it’s that you need his everything.
